MLB 2021

[Pariah]

This just in ... the Colorado Rockies no longer have the worst road record in the majors! The Rocks currently stand at 13-40 (.245) on the road, while the Texas Rangers are now 13-43 (.232). 

 

All hail the Rockies!

[unclevlad]

It's a 3 way race with the Diamondbacks!  14-43...fractionally better than Colorado, but it's neck and neck going down the stretch!  Fans of each team are clamoring;  we here at Hero Central would love to call this race, but it's too close!!!

 

But the Rockies win at home;  the others don't.  Which got me thinking...how bizarre are the Rockies?  .644 at home;  .245 on the road.  400 point difference (!!!)  

Found this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/crrb4w/the_biggest_homeroad_splits_in_history_or_just/

 

Houston was worse last year, but the only thing to remember from last year was they got something like a competitive season in.  Give props to whomever won;  managing to play well under the burdens of last year is something to be proud of.  Otherwise...................

 

 

[unclevlad]

WELL!!!!!

 

The Diamondbacks get their highlight for the season, and BOY is it a good one!!!

 

Tyler Gilbert.  Who?  Yeah.  Pitcher, been bounced around among a few clubs.

3rd major league appearance.

1st major league *start*.

 

NO-HITTER.  First EVER by the D'backs at home, too.  VERY good one;  3 walks to the same hitter, but 2 of em got erased apparently...he faced a total of 28 batters.  Just over 100 pitches.  2 strikeouts looking in the 9th.  

 

That's pretty awesome.  Always cool that his whole family is there too.

 

EDIT:  you'd never expect expect that a no-hitter in a pitcher's first start would be more than rare.  It isn't.  Twice in the 1890's...different era altogether.  Once in 1953.

 

And now tonight.

 

Flip side...the Padres are 6-8 since the trade deadline...which doesn't sound too bad, but it's been 3 games against Miami (17 under), 3 against the Rockies, and 6 against the D'Backs.  You have to beat the bad teams;  they've gone 5-7 in those games, when 8-4 would be what ya figure they needed to do.

[unclevlad]

Watching Sox-Yanks game one of the doubleheader today.

 

Bottom of the 5th starts with the Sox up 3-2.  Ends with the Yanks up 5-3.  The half inning took a half hour to play out.

 

There were 2 balls put into play.  2.  4 walks, 3 strikeouts.  One bloop single, one clean single.

 

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

[unclevlad]

Surprise, surprise, surprise....

 

The Diamondbacks no longer have the worst record.  They're 39-81.  The Orioles have mailed it in for the year, it looks like...they're currently on a 13 game losing streak.  As a result, they're 38-80...3 percentage points worse.

 

Arizona's still going to be the first team eliminated from division contention...magic number there is 4...but that's because the Giants are smoking hot.  However...the Orioles are closer to being completely eliminated from the playoffs by a couple games.

 

Of course, the greatest tragedy of the season is the Yankees....<sigh>

[Pariah]

It looks like he never lost consciousness. I don't know how that works, but I hope he'll make a full recovery.

 

Chris Bassitt hospitalized after getting hit in head by line drive; pitcher reportedly has facial fractures

[unclevlad]

9 hours ago, Pariah said:

It looks like he never lost consciousness. I don't know how that works, but I hope he'll make a full recovery.

 

Chris Bassitt hospitalized after getting hit in head by line drive; pitcher reportedly has facial fractures

 

There are few things in sports that are more frightening than this, IMO.  The absolute worst I've ever seen...forget the pitcher, but a line shot took him square in the head.  The ball flew across the third base line and, IIRC, one-hopped into the dugout or the stands.  That's how fast it was moving....one hop from the mound to out of play.  (Which was also good, in that the umps could call the play dead immediately.)

 

The front of the face would act as a crumple zone, I suspect.  He may need facial surgery and possible dental work, but that's better than a major concussion or direct brain injury.  More info on the injury here:

 

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/32044356/oakland-athletics-ace-chris-bassitt-suffered-cheek-fracture-line-drive-vision-unaffected

 

Facial surgery to shift the bones back in place appears to be a given.  Normal recovery is in the neighborhood of 6 weeks, typically...which is pretty much what's left of the season.

 

<shudder>  Even if you can't see anything gory per se, it's still hard to watch...

 

 

[archer]

MLB ends its 70 year long arrangement with Topps to make baseball cards.

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/19/mlb-will-end-long-time-deal-with-trading-card-company-topps.html

 

The existing contract runs through 2025.

[unclevlad]

Which had the secondary effect that Topps is remaining private rather than going public via a SPAC deal.  That deal collapsed hours after the announcement.

 

The new deal looks like it's creating a massive, monolithic licensed-apparel firm.  Fanatics swooped in on NBA and NFL cards too, plus *extensive* merchandising licensing at the college and pro levels...which means, even if Fanatics is paying larger percentages to the stakeholders (for the pros, both teams and players' associations), they're probably expecting to see significant, synergistic growth.

 

Combo follow-up...

The CNBC article points out that MLB has a stake in Fanatics.

Article in the WSJ says, MLB never said *anything* to Topps.  The deal's been in the works for several months, but no one talked to Topps or gave them a chance to develop a competing proposal.

 

Translation:  MLB is aiming for nearly complete vertical integration on all promotional products.  70-year partnerships be damned.  Profit isn't the golden rule, it's the only rule.

 

 

[unclevlad]

Yep.  D'backs are mathematically eliminated from the division now.  83 losses;  Giants have 79 wins, which'd just be a tie, but the Dodgers have 78.  And they play each other 3 times, so one or both must reach 80.

 

Backbreaking loss last night...that was clear in the D'backs broadcasters' voices.  Gallen starts and throws 7 shutout innings...in Coors Field.  Bullpen gives up 2 in the 8th to tie, and a 3-run shot in the 9th to walk it off.  They've been playing better...not great, but better...but that one hurt.

[unclevlad]

Gavin Weir.  Remember the name.

 

Kid's 12.  Pitches for the team that came out of South Dakota.  Compared to Chris Sale...which is pretty good.

 

His stats coming into today:

 

Quote

Between districts, states, regionals and the Little League World Series, Weir has been nearly unhittable. Over his last 37.2 innings, he’s allowed just one hit, no earned runs, and struck out 100 batters. Yes, he has struck out 100 of a possible 113 batters (88 percent). That’s just crazy.

 

That's from Yardbarker.

100 K's.  5 walks.  *1* hit.

All he did today was ANOTHER no-hitter with 14 K's...and this is Little League, 6 inning games.  1 walk or he'd have another perfect game...he had one earlier.  He threw 5 2/3 no-hit innings earlier in the LLWS, but had to come out for pitch count reasons.  8 starts, 8 wipeout performances.

 

He might be done.  Pitch rules...he had to throw 83 pitches to get through, and that requires, IIRC, 4 days' rest.  The final game is scheduled for Sunday;  he can't pitch again until Monday.  But it was a 1-0 game, and puts the team into the bracket's championship game...the loser has to play the winner of the losers' bracket.  Those games are a much bigger deal in Little League because of the pitch count issues.  



 

[unclevlad]

Orioles have been eliminated from the playoffs.  D'backs...not quite yet.  Their e-number is still 4.  Largely because San Diego's fallen off the cliff.  66-49 and 4.5 up on the Reds on August 10th.  3-13 since, and now 1.5 back of the Reds.  And 10 of their last 19 games are against the Giants...who'll be playing to win the division, not relaxing, looks like.  

[Cygnia]

Mets acting GM Zack Scott busted on drunk driving charge in White Plains

[unclevlad]

So who managed to be so bad that they got eliminated from the playoffs altogether before Labor Day?  D'backs, Orioles, and Rangers.  Pirates get honorable mention...they're not technically eliminated per se.  They could tie San Diego AND Cincy...both have 73 wins now, while the Pirates have 89 losses.  

 

It does appear that all 4 teams will surpass 100 losses rather readily.

 

NL playoffs...Giants, Dodgers, and Brewers are pretty much locks, with San Diego and Cincy most likely taking the other WC.  Atlanta, Philly, and the Mets will fight to be the mediocrity from the East...just like the NFC East.  It'd take 2 of them to have the 2nd team have a shot at the WC.

 

AL playoffs...Tampa Bay and the White Sox are likely both in.  Tampa Bay's magic number to clinch a berth is 14, with 26 games left.  White Sox are 9 up for their division.  The fun part is the AL is very tightly tiered at the top...after TB, the Red Sox, White Sox, Yankees, and Astros are separated by a game and a half;  then, Oakland, Seattle, and Toronto all have 62 losses.  (Red Sox have 59;  they've got the 2nd WC right now.)  Cleveland would need to pull off a Rockies-style miracle finish;  I'm not sure the Angels could get in even if they pulled their own.

[Pariah]

[Pariah]

I'm watching the Rockies/Braves game, and the organist is playing "Werewolves of London".

[Cancer]

Is his hair perfect?

[unclevlad]

No, but he is an Excitable Boy.;

 

Of course, if it was at Coors, the right song (at least from the fans' perspective) would be Thing to Do in Denver When You're Dead.

[Cancer]

Do they play Get Out Of Denver at Coors Field?

[unclevlad]

46 minutes ago, Cancer said:

Do they play Get Out Of Denver at Coors Field?

 

A song by the Silver Bullet Band...in COORS????  

Probably every time a visiting team yanks a reliever, mid-inning...

[Pariah]

The Rockies just finished 7-2 on their nine-game toad trip and stand within ten games of .500.

 

Given what he's had to work with, Bud Black should get some support for Manager Of The Year. (YMMV, naturally.) 

[unclevlad]

16 hours ago, Pariah said:

The Rockies just finished 7-2 on their nine-game toad trip and stand within ten games of .500.

 

Given what he's had to work with, Bud Black should get some support for Manager Of The Year. (YMMV, naturally.) 

 

Well it was on the road, so that's moderately impressive.

 

Flip side?  It was the NFC East they were playing, the division nobody wants.

 

Did I say NFC East?  Silly me....they're both afterthoughts, so I blame that for my brain fart....52 games under .500 as of right now, which is the worst overall division-combined record out there.  AL Central is -21.

A little diving into the records...outside their division, Colorado is .500...41-41.  Outside their division, Atlanta is 37-40, and Philly is 36-43.

[slikmar]

Sounds like the Angels - 72-77 overall, 24-39 against AL west, 48 - 38 vs everyone else. If they could have been 500 (or even 1 game under at 32-33) vs their own division, they 80 - 71 now and in the playoff hunt (especially as part of those 8 wins would be against Houston, Oakland or Seattle most likely).

[Cygnia]

[Pariah]

The St. Louis Cardinals just clinched the final Wild Card spot in the NL ... by winning seventeen games in a row. According to the story I read earlier, that's the longest winning streak in the NL since 1937.

 

My Mom was a lifelong Cardinals fan--she listened to Harry Caray back when he was the radio guy for the Cardinals, before his big move to the Cubs. I think she'd be happy at how her team is doing.